The Prince, a Villa fan, was quizzed when George might watch his first football match.

Referring to his wife Kate, he replied: “I don’t know, I’ll have to pass that by the missus, see how I can get away with it!

"At the moment, being only 22 months, it’s a little bit early.”

Nation's sweethearts: Princes William and George

He also hinted he would try to encourage George to be a fellow fan of Villa saying: “The responsible thing would be to say, to let him make his own mind up, but I think I might be quite biased! I haven’t quite worked out how to play that yet.

"But, of course he can support whoever he wants, but if he supports Villa, it’d be fantastic. I’d love to go to the odd match with him in the future.

"It’ll probably end up being that Charlotte is the Villa fan, and George will go and support someone else.”

William said he was “nervous” ahead of the final, where he will present the Cup, but said Aston Villa had done “seriously well” to get there.

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He explained: “A long time ago, at school, I’d just got into football big time. I was looking round for clubs to support and all my friends at school were either Man U fans or Chelsea fans.

"I didn’t really want to follow the run of the mill teams, and I wanted to have a team that was more middle of the table, that could give me the more emotional rollercoaster moments – to be honest, now looking back, that was a bad idea, haha.

"I could have had an easier time!

“Aston Villa has always had a great history. I’ve got friends of mine who support Aston Villa, and one of the first FA Cup games I went to was Bolton v Aston Villa, back in 2000.

"It was a semi-final, which sadly Villa then went on to lose against Chelsea. But it was fantastic, I sat with all the fans, I had my red beanie on, and I was sat with all the Brummie fans and had a great time.

"It was just the atmosphere, the camaraderie, and I really felt that there was something I could connect with."

William, who is president of the Football Association, spoke about more serious matters in football.

He said: “There’s a number of things that could do with being changed. I’d like to see racism stamped out for starters – in all competitions.

"I think, domestically we’re very good at it, and we’re a lot better to be than we used to be, and actually I think we’re now a leading light in it. There’s still much more to do, but I think we’re very good.

"I think the rest of Europe probably and the world have some catching up to do.”

William also spoke about his idea for getting more homegrown talent coming through into the Premier League.

He said: “I think getting some of these young guys coming through the system, giving them more game time, allowing them more flexibility so they can potentially go out on loan, so that they’re getting these big pressure moments to play in matches, to increase their awareness and their expectations of what’s happening, and obviously their skills – that’s hugely important.

"I know Harry Kane is one everyone’s talked about recently a lot, and I know he’s benefited from someone like Tim Sherwood who’s helped him through the youth academy.

"It’s the foreign element, we don’t want to degrade the Premier League – it’s one of the most fantastic in the world and everyone loves watching it – but we have to find a clever balance, to allow the England team more talent to come through.”

The full interview with Gary and Prince William will air on Saturday on BBC1 in the build up to the FA Cup final which starts at 12.10pm.